Court orders release of atheist who was imprisoned for blasphemy in Kano

A federal high court sitting in Abuja has reportedly ordered the release of atheist Mubarak Bala, who was imprisoned for blasphemy in Kano.

Mubarak Bala, president of the Humanist Affiliation of Nigeria, was arrested on the 28th of April after he made a post on Facebook, calling the Prophet Muhammad a terrorist.

He was arrested in Kano by the state police after being accused of violating anti-blasphemy legal guidelines, which may carry a loss of life sentence.

Bala’s lawyer, First Baba Isa has now taken to Facebook to reveal that a federal high court has ordered his release.

He shared the news on Facebook stating that the Inspector General of Police and Nigeria Police Force were ordered to release Mubarak Bala.

He wrote;

I have just obtained judgement from the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordering the Inspector General of Police and Nigeria Police Force to release Mubarak Bala, who has been in detention for over 8 months for blasphemy.

This is landmark for me and all of us at�FBI LEGAL�Details shortly…

-Firsts Baba Isa

(FBI),

Counsel to Mubarak Bala.

Nobel Prize-winning author Wole Soyinka wrote that Mr. Bala’s arrest was a part of a “plague of spiritual extremism” that has in current many years encroached on the harmonious Nigeria he grew up in.

Mr. Bala is believed to be the primary atheist arrested in Nigeria for blasphemy, however Muslims typically fall afoul of the blasphemy legal guidelines within the Islamic authorized system adopted 20 years in the past by the nation’s northern states.